Thursday, May 27, 2010

So maybe this is taking the whole up-cycling / receycling thing too far but interesting nonetheless. Us crazy scrappers are making use of what normaly would be disposed in the weekly trash pick up - empty toilet paper rolls. I have seen these rolls transformed into gift card holders, mini albums, seasonal decor and more.

Well now the joke is on me, because it turns out there are very fun to make...photos of my own toilet paper projects coming soon!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Arkansas weather feels like we are just on the edge of summer. The season I love the most!

I love no school, which equallys sleeping in!

I love a sweating kiddo

I love big sunglasses and sunscreen

I love afternoons splashing in the pool & the smell of chlorine

I love having time to read (currently enjoying Jodi Picoult's "19 Minutes")

I love Watermelon and BBQ's

I love NO agendas, NO activities, NO sporting events

I love watching her jump in the sprinkler & eating popsicles

We are right there, so close! A few more weeks of school then we are home free. Awe

Of course we have to scrapbook all those amazing summer moments as well! I LOVE bright colors for summer and I have a few favorites I can't wait to use, they are really just screaming to have photos on them of swimsuits, beaches, big sunglasses and kite flying.

The first is from a new company Echo Park Paper Company. Summertime is their first and only line released so far and they have my mouth watering as to just what they will put out next. It is very bright and great for boys or girls. It features a lot of banners which are the "it" thing right now too.

The second is from October Afternoon and it's called "Fly a Kite". It is more muted but still summer ready and very kitchy which is totally cute. Good for far more than kite flying pics.

Friday, May 21, 2010

I suppose everyone's life is different from how they invisioned it in some ways. I have just been wondering lately about the little descisions we make along the way that lead to massive impacts to our life path. Sometimes I wish I could go back to those moments and take a mullegan. A do over.

But then, what would I have missed?

Maybe it's like trying to "have your cake and eat it too" or "the grass is always greener on the other side".

I'm not saying I don't love my life. I have so many blessings.

Today I feel like it is me I don't like. That the events and choices along the way shaped me into something I don't want to be.

Strange.

I am a perfectionist, a very driven people pleaser who doesn't want to let anyone down. Doesn't want to fall short of someone's expectionations of me. Riggid. Hard. Wants to climb the ladder, achieve and conquer everything. Passionate. Smiling with a heavy spirit, because it is again what is expected. A care-taker. But that's not the me I was always going to be.

Is this me? Or did the me I could have been get squeezed out, squashed by those little choices I have made. Little by little until me wasn't me anymore. I don't feel like I'm a fake person. I just feel like I am not me...the me I am supposed to be.

I think the real me was supposed to be free. Passionate. A creative spirit without limitations and bounds. Smiling from a deep and light place. A dreamer. Unaffected by the pressure of society & life. Someone who loved like crazy, like it was the only thing that mattered. Because it is.

Maybe I need little of both "me's". I need to become the me I want to be.

I want a tomorrow that doesn't look like yesterday. So what are you going to do? When the rubber meets the road Katie, when you can't have a do over and things are what they are?

Are you going to fight like hell for everything that matters? Give up everything that doesn't? Do something drastic, or stay static?

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Chances are if you know me, you know my BFF Katie Tillman as well. Call us Thelma and Louise, Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dumb, Thing 1 and Thing 2, Dumb & Dumber...you get the point. When you get one, most of the time you get the other too. We work together professionally, our families hang out together, we scrapbooking together and now after years of dreaming and discussing we are entrepreneurs together with the birth of 2Katie Designs. Our friendship began with scrapbooking and I can't wait to see where it takes us in this new venture.

We didn't start this business because we think we are rock stars (that's just fact -j!), but because we see a lack of class options and scrapbooking events in our area of the woods. We hope to share or love and cultivate more scrapbookers to get into the hobby. It's a hobby that records our families legacy and it's an awesome creative outlet for us.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Do you here the angels doing an AAAAWWWWWW from heaven? They are at my house. A day just for me!!! And all the other Mama’s out there too I suppose. One of the things I wanted most for Mother’s Day was help cleaning the house – not the “picking up” kind of clean but the scrubbing, organizing, nitty gritty cleaning kind of help. Since I have gone to working more full time it is hard to manage this task. So Jon and Kaia chipped in. Kaia made my little heart flutter by organizing my shoes for me. This is the perfect task for her Obsessive Compulsiveness. All my shoes are perfectly stacked, matched and clipped together with clothespins. It is fun for her to tackle the task and I get to reap the benefits…I promise to try to keep up with it Kai!

I love this girl, and being her mommy is the joy of my life. She is growing up before my eyes, changing everyday. I love who she is – a creative, direct, unconventional, animal loving, sweet child.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Pink Hair…yes I colored my hair pink. Well I added hot pink Peekaboo highlights in a few select locations on my head. I guess I am known to drastically change my hair from season to season but this is a new one for me. I needed to embrace my fleeting youth I suppose and what better way that to do something pure fun! So I chopped it off into a cutie bob, went blond and added the pink.I am also still playing with making different hair things and such. As you can see I made this LARGE flower for my hair and put in on a ribbon. I wore it to a scrapbooking class I was teaching since our colors are black and white and teal so it went perfectly. Makes me smile.